Where You Should Absolutely Be This Saturday

Well everyone, the time we've all been waiting for has arrived: this Saturday is the official Pittsburgh Dave Matthews Band show!!

Wait, what's that? You haven't been waiting all year for this? Well... WHY NOT?

Ohhh, I see. You remember that annoying guy who lived across Semple Street from you sophomore year and used to pull out his acoustic guitar and play "Crash" on his porch every September night to impress the drunk freshman girls, huh? Yeah, I remember him too. He was a real douche, wasn't he?

You know what the GOOD news is? Not every one of us who obssesses over the yearly DMB show is like that guy. Some of us have actually made it through entire Dave shows without puking on ourselves, and some of us have even gone on successful dates without ending the night trying to seduce someone to a soundtrack of "Say Goodbye." Really. We exist.

I say all of this with a smile, because this is kind of the line of reasoning I had to use when I took my husband to his first DMB show back in 2006. He was not my husband then, and we'd actually only been dating for a few weeks at that point. But it was DMB time, and both of us kind of already knew we were sort of pretty serious about each other, and in my mind, there was one further step to seal the deal: he had to come see Dave with me and my goofy group of fabulous friends from high school.

And he was reeeeeeally hesitant at first. He gave me the whole, 'oh, the only people who listen to DMB are frat boys and drunk underage Pitt girls' line that so many people give. And then I said, "Well, there are two shows, and Saturday is sold out, so you only have to make it through Friday's show, and I already got you a ticket, so that's that."

He spent about an hour Saturday night wandering the lot, searching for a person selling an extra (he found one, and we have a picture of his triumphant return to our space in the lot).

So you can be a convert. Let me sell you on this band - on this fantastic, inspiring, dance-spurring band. Forget everything you thought you knew about the band from the guy with the backwards hat downstairs from you in Towers. Give them a shot and keep your mind open.

I've been seeing this band for ten years now - my first show was at Three Rivers Stadium in 2000. It poured down rain most of the set, and the fireworks they set off during "Two Step" were mostly obscured by the overhang several rows above us (which naturally was no help against the rain), but I started to get an idea of just how amazing this band was.

By my second show in the summer of 2002, I was hooked. Since then, we've seen the band in Virginia, Ohio, Boston, and Los Angeles. We've done road trips and crashed on people's couches, and we've discovered fantastic random truck stops in the middle of the night. We have sat for more hours in parking lots post show, and burned more hot dogs on carside grills than we would ever have done otherwise, if not for this band. And it is always SO worth it.

We had the pleasure of seeing Dave Matthews last Friday night in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. We try to make it to the show there at the Blossom Music Center every year if we can. The venue is great, even though the parking lot is literally a cow pasture (the only identifying landmark is an abandoned oil well between two sections of pasture), and the walk from your car to the show is about a mile, give or take. This was my third show at Blossom, and not only was it the best of those, I think it truly ranks in the top three all-time Dave shows.

(That's another thing about us crazy Dave fans - we keep track of number of shows, quality of shows, times we've heard certain songs - or not heard those songs. Lot conversation is pretty interesting.)

First and foremost, every member of the band is an incredible musician. They aren't just guys getting together to play some easy chords on the weekends. This is their life, and you can see it in their faces. Never before have I seen band members so visibly love what they're doing. You know that big, goofy Hines Ward grin when he catches a touchdown pass? That's Carter Beauford's face during a drum solo, or Dave's face when he's dancing all crazy in front of a sell-out crowd.

Second of all, their chemistry is unbeatable. There are songs that they stretch out with solos and improvisation, and it all just feels so natural, like the song had always had these extended bits to it.

And then there's the feeling of community. When they started "Grace is Gone" at Blossom (a sad, drinking-away-your-lost-love song, as many of theirs are), the entire crowd sang along, and I just got chills being a part of that incredible monster. Or the moment in "Ants Marching," when the lyrics are, "People in every direction," and Dave turns the microphone to the audience as the crew illuminates the pavilion seats and spins the cameras to us.

The band has already announced that they're taking 2011 off for a much-needed break, and it seemed in Ohio that maybe in part because of this, they were pulling out all the stops. They played an old crowd favorite, "Recently," that I've only heard at three shows. And best of all, they played "So Right" for an encore, another rare treat that makes you absolutely unable to stop dancing. And did I mention how amazing the stuff off the newest album is live, like "Shake Me Like a Monkey?"

So give it a try. I think there are still tickets left, and the 96.1 KissFM Freak Show Morning Show are giving away tickets every day this week at 8am. Even if it sells out and you can't make it, the show is down at PNC Park, so you could sit out on the side of the Allegheny River and probably hear the music just as well.

As for our little group of die-hard DMB fans, we will be parked directly in front of the stage, hoping to either be close enough to touch Boyd's knee, or fortunate enough to catch one of Carter's sticks at the end of the night.

Oh, and I'm holding out hope that on this, my sixteenth show, they'll finally play "Lover Lay Down." Please. Pretty, pretty please. I have waited long enough :)



(The "So Right" encore at Blossom.)

The Lesser of Two Evils: Cup Finals, 2010

Our beloved Penguins had an untimely end to their season this year, falling in a seven-game second-round series to the Montreal Canadiens. It was a disappointment all around the city, although the ending seemed somehow fated - this season was the final flight for the Igloo, and the very last game played within its walls ended the same as its first, Canadiens over the 'Guins.

However, despite their fire against the reigning Stanley Cup champs, the Canadiens couldn't pull off an Eastern Conference Finals win, and they fell to those nefarious Broad Street bullies, the Philadelphia Flyers, in just six short games.

I like to believe we've always hated the Flyers, but for me, it all comes down to one defining moment on May 6, 2000. We were playing the Flyers at home in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, and we were up in the series, 2 games to 1. The game began on May 5, but went into overtime after goals from Alexei Kovalev and John LeClair, and stretched on long into the night, and long into the next morning... across five overtimes, to be exact. Those of us who suffered through the whole thing will never forget that early morning when it all came crashing down around us - Keith Primeau, who never seemed to score in important moments, slid the puck past goalie Ron Tugnutt, and ended the third longest game in the history of the NHL in favor of the Flyers.

I have never forgiven Keith Primeau for that. In fact, I don't believe that I ever will. To be quite honest, Keith Primeau could probably walk into my life right now, give me a million dollars, rescue my puppy from a tree, bake a cake for my grandma, and although I would thank him in the moment, I would probably still give him the finger the second he turned his back to leave.

(And I'm not the type of person who holds grudges, so you can imagine how others of that sort must feel.)

So, back to today, the Flyers are in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but as there are two teams competing, all should not be lost, right? Wrong. Where this typically would have led us Yinzers to simply declare we were rooting for the West Coast team in the Finals, the decision has not been such an easy one this year. Enter the Chicago Blackhawks, who haven't won a cup since the early 1960s. Playing on their team? Pittsburgh's Most Hated, one Marian Hossa.

The right-winger wasn't always hated around these parts. In fact, back in 2008, we loved the guy. That's because, for thirty-two games up to and including that failed Stanley Cup playoff run, he played right wing for the good guys. Us. He came in at the trade deadline as a sidekick for Sidney Crosby's line, and he produced well in the playoffs with twelve goals and twenty-six points. But, as everyone knows, the efforts of our boys weren't enough, and Detroit crushed our dreams of bringing home Lord Stanley with a game six win on our home ice.

That summer, Hossa was a free agent, and in one of the most-talked-about outrages in Penguins history, he signed with the Red Wings because he "would have a little better chance to win the Cup in Detroit."

Pittsburgh began to hate this man. It was nearly as bad as the time Sienna Miller dissed our city, and the staff of local restaurants and bars had anti-Sienna t-shirts made in the aftermath. But our revenge was sweet - when we faced the Red Wings in a second Stanley Cup Final matchup, we held Hossa scoreless and came out the champions at the end of a seven-game series. Many were the jokes at his expense (did you hear about the new drink at Starbucks? It's called a Hossa and it comes without a cup), t-shirts were found on street corners in the Strip District, and all around the city was a general feeling of, "That'll teach him to mess with the 'Burgh."

So here we are, the eve of game six, with the Blackhawks poised to win the Cup with a victory tomorrow night. Who do we choose? Who do we root for? The man who did us wrong, or the team who has been one of our arch-nemeses since the dawn of hockey time?

I've enjoyed watching people pick sides via Facebook statuses and blog posts. You can't really tell who's going to be on which side until the statement is made, and some decisions have very much surprised me. What's been consistent all around though is a preface to the statement. "I really hate the Flyers, but I can't stand to see Hossa get the cup..." "I'm still mad at Hossa for turning on us, but if those dirty Flyers touch Lord Stanley..." It's the lesser of two evils. You have to pick a side, because it's hockey, and there's just no other way. So who is it going to be? Who is truly evil, and who is just simply horrid?

As for me, I'm going to have to root for the Hawks. Yes, Hossa choose poorly when he left the 'Burgh for so-called Hockeytown, but I feel he's served his time. He's had to go through the trauma of two Stanley Cup Final losses in a row, transfer through four teams across three seasons, and a whole mess of dirty looks from us Yinzers should he set foot out of his hotel while his team is in town.

And besides, although he may have retired in 2006, there's always a chance that a bit of Keith Primeau's soul (and I'm going a long way here by assuming he has one) might yet be lingering around the Flyers' locker room, and, well, I just really don't think I can forgive that guy.

Friday Five - The Out-of-Town Edition

So, to celebrate the opening of the newest Sex and the City movie (I'm kidding - we planned the trip long before we knew the opening date, it just conveniently worked out that way), my husband and I shipped off to New York City for the last week of May. We took the train up and stayed at the unique Hotel Chelsea (which was not entirely coincidental with respect to my favorite Ryan Adams song).

The Chelsea was one of those things that grows on you. It's grungy, smelly in some places, like that old-building-who-has-suffered-so-much-in-its-years kind of way, but there is a vibe there that you can't deny. It has been home to so many famous writers, artists, and musicians, and it's like each person has left behind a little piece of inspiration for the people who would come next. We had the best conversations, the funniest jokes, and the most productive writing sessions of recent memory while we were there.

That said, I still compulsively checked the sheets and mattresses for cleanliness and a lack of bedbugs. Oh, and I started checking the city for resassuring sights that reminded me of home. That's what this blog is - five Pittsburgh references in New York City. Believe me, this was harder to find than I thought it would be!

#5. Steeler Guy on the Train:

There were a ton of backwards Pirates hats floating around, but this was one of the rare Steeler shirts we could spot in our travels. Thanks, Steeler guy on the F Train!

#4. Pierogies on the Menu:

Our last night in the city, we searched for a bar in Chelsea with cheap bar food and stumbled upon Flight 151. They had pierogies on the menu, and a whole mess of flavors to choose from. They were slightly more fried than the traditional Ukrainian ones we make, but man were they still good! I thought we only put pierogies on the menu here in the 'Burgh, but I was glad to see them out of state!

#3. Pittsburgh Publishers:

We hit up the famous Strand Bookstore in the East Village, and what was on the poetry shelves but a Pitt Poetry Series compilation by Kathleen Norris, published by our very own University of Pittsburgh Press.

#2. Thunderbolt:

We walked into a random dive bar in the Lower East Side after dinner, and although it was a bit too crowded for us to stick around and have a drink, we saw this picture hanging over the door. Not sure if it's truly the Kennywood Thunderbolt (there is also a Thunderbolt ride at Coney Island, but it's much more like a Music Express than our famous wooden coaster), but it counts!

#1. Hibernia:


On the hottest day of our trip, when it was in the mid-90s with 100% humidity, we found ourselves wandering up near Hell's Kitchen and dying for a cold drink and some lunch. Lucky for us, we were just a few blocks from a true NYC Steeler bar, Hibernia. An interesting piece of trivia: the guys who used to run Scruffy Duffy's (the awesome Steeler bar just a few blocks away that closed down a few years back) now run this place. And they are super wicked kind to Yinzers. Just let them know you're a Steeler fan, or a current or former Pittsburgh resident, and see what I mean. :) We were not disappointed, and now have yet another Steeler Bar added to our list. Someday, when I'm rich and famous and have nothing better to do than travel, I'm going to hit every one and tell you all about it.

For now, I'm going to get back to the lengthy task of captioning and posting all of the trip photos, but I'll be back soon with some captivating hockey discussions and Arts Festival reviews!

Friday Five - Pittsburgh-Isms

Whether or not you live in Pittsburgh, if you've met someone who has or does, you've heard the infamous Yinzer accent. In fact, if our friends over at Greg and Donny are telling us the truth, you don't ever even have to leave Johnstown to experience our fantastic own take on the English language (PS, I love those guys, and you really should too).

But moreso than the accent, it's the words and phrases we come up with. There's the classic 'hey yinz guys,' or any combination of words that involves going 'dahntahn' or buying 'chipped ham,' but I have a special interest in entire phrases that are both full sentences and only recognizable to Pittsburghers. It's a good way to find your own people when you're abroad. For example, there's a special place in my heart for whatever displaced or road-tripping Yinzer it was in Cuyahoga Falls who started a "Here we go, Steelers" chant as we were exiting the Blossom Music Center after a Dave Matthews concert. (And to that extent, I have to mention the guy who yelled 'HAIL TO PITT!' at me in the lot for the Alexandria, VA Dave show, which was the last known sighting of my favorite blue & gold t-shirt. Still don't understand where that thing went...)

Anyway, I digress. I'm trying to come up with a comprehensive listing of Pittsburgh phrases, and I'm going to start you off with five that I love.

#5. Kennywood Outfit:
While I've been Googling around, looking for phrases that I may have missed, I found a mention of "Kennywood Outfits." I had almost forgotten this entirely - all the Pittsburgh area schools have 'Kennywood day,' which is a chance for you to buy a really cheap Ride-All-Day pass in the cafeteria on a certain afternoon. Then, on your school's Kennywood Day, you would get all geared up and divide your friends into even-numbered groups (if it was something that divided nicely by four, you were set for pretty much any ride in the park) and head to Kennywood, feeling particularly important, because it was *your* school's day. So of course, for this momentous yearly occasion, you had to pick a Kennywood Outfit, which was the most important thing you'd wear all summer, probably. Unless, of course, you were like my tiny high school, who got stuck with the first weekend in May (or last weekend in April, if we were really lucky) as your Kennywood Day, in which case, you'd never see your Kennywood Outfit because it would be under your snowsuit and scarf.

#4: Kiss My Ass Under the Kaufmann's Clock:
While this phrase is probably now defunct, as our favorite downtown department store has been bought out, I had to mention it. Since I first heard that you could tell someone to kiss your ass under the Kaufmann's clock, I've always found this to be a great retort, particularly when in a verbal hockey debate with a Flyers fan. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, this may not have been such a popular phrase for anyone who wasn't just mastering use of the word 'ass' in or around 1991. But it really should have been! (I know it's a Macy's now, but don't we all know that as the Kaufmann's clock still? Can we bring this phrase back?)

#3: That's It, Fort Pitt:
Anybody who grew up with Pittsburgh parents has probably heard the phrase, "That's it, Fort Pitt." My understanding is that this was originally a slogan for Fort Pitt Brewing Company, but it's used as a general end to things ("The Buccos are under .500 already, and it's only May? That's it, Fort Pitt!") However, as a kid growing up in the 'Burgh, it was also usually the thing your dad said to shut you up when you were whining. "No, you're not getting a pony; that's it, Fort Pitt." Not sure if it was because we were all sitting there going, "What the hell does he mean by that?," but it always seemed to work.

#2: Kennywood's Open:
"Kennywood's Open" is a great phrase, because it means two things at once: not only can you ride the Thunderbolt at the present moment, your fly is down. For people who didn't seem to be clued in to the phrase, we would throw in an, "And the rides are about to begin..." if he or she didn't zip up fast enough.

#1: Anything Mike Lange Says:
No Pittsburgh phrase list would be complete without the famous Mike Lange-isms, which could cover an entire blog entry on their own. (For non-Yinzers: Mike Lange is the radio voice of the Pittsburgh Penguins - fomerly the TV voice. Really, no better sportscaster around.) Although I've never tried it, I bet you could single out your fellow Yinzers at a crowded out-of-town bar during the first round of the playoffs by yelling, "Buy Sam a drink, and get his dog one too!" My favorites are, "She wants to sell my monkey," and "How much fried chicken can you eat?" although the latest, "Slap me silly, Sidney" is kind of growing on me. Other notable Mike Lange-isms: "Scratch my back with a hacksaw," "Michael, Michael, Motorcycle," "Never Teach a Pig to Sing," my former roommate's favorite, "Get in the fast lane, Grandma, the Bingo game is ready to roll," and probably the most-quoted, "Elvis has just left the building." (Is it time for hockey season again yet???)

I plan to keep adding to this list. I'm a sucker for those Things that Aren't There Anymore Rick Sebak films, and a comprehensive only-in-Pittsburgh phrase list is surely going to spawn the next big hit. Help me out - what are your favorites?

For now, this is my list, and that's it, Fort Pitt. :)

The View

I wanted to share a few pictures I took of the city from LeMont restaurant last month. LeMont is the ever-classy restaurant at the top of Mt. Washington, famous for proposals and fancy work banquets and proms. Despite the stereotypical picture this may paint, it's really a fantastic restaurant, with excellent service, delicious food, and of course, some of the best views of the city.

Also, from now until June 6th, LeMont is offering some unbeatable dinner deals in honor of their 50th anniversary (dinner for two at $50, and a whole list of $25 wine bottles). If you've never been, I really have to recommend checking it out. And if you go, ask if you can sit in Marco's section. He was our waiter the last two times we were there, and I really think he's one of the top waiters in the whole city. Never once did we feel rushed through our meals, and he was funny, charming, and knowledgeable about the entire menu. He even got the bartender to open a special bottle of wine for me so I could try a single glass (it was a Paso Robles wine that is typically only available by the bottle, but being the Central Coast wine afficionado I am, I had to ask).

We went just before sundown, so we were able to enjoy the sky changing colors over the city. The view is so crystal clear from LeMont that you can almost see what's showing on the big screen at the Buccos game across the river at PNC Park. Almost any view from Mt. Washington is beautiful on the right day, but the entire city and the Point are just perfect from this restaurant.



The view at the beginning of sundown.



Looking into PNC Park across the Ft. Duquesne Bridge.



The Point and the city behind it after dark.

Overwhelmed

Sometimes, this city overwhelms me. It isn't always in a bad way, and really, the good ways that it overwhelms me are what got me thinking about this entry, but I do think it's worth noting that my extremes in moods are quite often linked to this city.

Let me begin by telling a story about Los Angeles.

I lived in Los Angeles for about eighteen months. The part of LA where we lived was actually Burbank, which is home to lots of movie studios and unbearable temperatures. Burbank is in the Valley, which is the San Fernando Valley, home to Valley Girls and the adult film industry. I'm not making that up; Boogie Nights was based on an area about ten miles from our house, and every Tuesday night, the bar down the street from us hosted Porn Star Karaoke, which is precisely what it sounds like it is. (Since you are now wondering, porn stars are excellent at karaoke.)

If you've ever visited Southern California, you know that it is home to two colors, brown and smog-brown. Brown is the color of the mountains and vegetation, and smog-brown is the color of the cloud that hangs over the city any time there is daylight.

Los Angeles is also home to two major weather conditions, which are 'hot' and 'unbearably freaking hot.' In the Valley, the temperature would easily top triple digits in August. In fact, I distinctly remember searching for over an hour for a parking space at Santa Monica beach on Labor Day, because it was only 98 degrees on the shore, and that felt chilly compared to the 117 in Burbank.

There is, however, a minor weather condition, typically seen only from mid-January through February, and this is 'torrential downpour.' Basically, once we were so exhausted with sunlight, the sky decided to spend thirty days dumping water on us, causing all sorts of traffic accidents and flooding conditions, and a leak in the closet that held our hot water tank. And then in March...

We went to San Francisco for a weekend, just to get the hell out of LA, and suddenly, the hillsides... they were green. I'm not just talking like, mildly green, I'm speaking new-birth-of-the-forest freaking Fern Gully green. And there were wildflowers! The hills were covered with little dots of yellow that just coated the side of the road. We were driving up the 5, and I remember thinking, "Holy Jesus, this isn't Los Angeles! What the hell? Has the city finally come to life?" The brown hills were green, the yellowish mountains were green, the wildflowers were everywhere, and on that day, the world was full of promise.

This lasted about a week, and when we drove up the same route to Sonoma for the film festival in the beginning of April, the hills were brown again. The sun had returned and scorched it all, and all I had were the photos we'd taken to prove that LA really had another color stored away somewhere.

That weekend in Sonoma, I made a solomn vow that I was going to get the hell off the West Coast and back to Pittsburgh where I belonged.

The thing about Pittsburgh is that the feeling that the world is alive is what keeps me going. Yes, there are depressing things around every bend, if you're looking. The Pens lost Game 6 to the Canadiens last night, when we really should have won, but as I was rushing home to catch the third period, I passed over the Hot Metal Bridge, and the lights of the city reflected off of the Monongahela, and for one minute, I couldn't worry about the outcome of the game. I knew there was a chance we weren't going to pull through and win it, but I also knew, in that moment, that in a city as beautiful as ours, there was always going to be another chance.

In autumn, the trees here cover such a wide expanse of colors, and the sky in October is just so very, very blue, and the sight from the top of the hill where I live of the Steel Building peeking up over the trees from downtown is just unmatchable. And in winter, that quiet stillness after a huge snowfall, when the trees are hanging low, bare branches outlined in white... it just makes me feel warm.

So maybe it's the fact that I had to live through the shades of brown in Los Angeles that lets me get so overwhelmed with this city's beauty. I'll take it. I don't regret the fact that we spent so much time and money and heart getting beat down on the West Coast, if the trade-off is that I can appreciate this little city so much more fully. This is our first spring in this house, and I have been watching the green burst out on the trees, watched the blossoms erupt pink and then fade into emerald. The Steel Building towers over green now, a million different gorgeous shades, and I just feel overwhelmed - overwhelmed in a good way, struck with the fact that maybe life is, after all, full of possibility and promise.

If I could give this city a hug, I would do it. If I could wrap my arms around Pittsburgh, even on a rainy day, even on the day after a Pens loss, I would do it. In fact, maybe right now is the moment that this city needs a hug. Last night, when I was feeling down, the city lights lifted me up, and if I could tell this city just how much I love it, maybe tomorrow, the sun will shine again and the Pens will bring home a win.

Really, in this city, I think it's quite possible. :)

A Food Festive Day

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, and like many other Americans, I choose to celebrate this holiday with margaritas and delicious Mexican food despite not really understanding what the point of the holiday is. (Because I don't like to be 'that guy', I looked it up and have learned that its original intent is to simply commemorate the Mexican victory against the French in the 1862 Battle of Puebla, although it is presently celebrated more in the US just how I thought, as a day to appreciate Mexican heritage and culture, and consequently give us an excuse to overindulge in all that fantastic cooking).

However, we Pittsburghers are fortunate enough that we can cross over into two ethnic food worlds, as the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral runs its Greek Food Festival the first week of May, coinciding nicely with the holiday. And yesterday, I was one of those lucky Pittsburghers who got to experience both.

My husband and I decided to hit up St. Nick's for lunch, and we took advantage of the beautiful weather by walking from our house in Squirrel Hill through Schenley Park into Oakland. It was quite a hike, but the scenery was just unbeatable. Here are two pictures we took from the Panther Hollow Bridge in Schenley.





We had missed lunch by the time we got to St. Nick's, but the a-la carte menu runs straight through the day. We wound our way into the church basement (I could write a whole blog about how I love church basements and their random stages and feel of a Bingo game about to begin) and tenatively approached the food.

I am going to admit this right now: those big rotating meat-slab things at the Point during the Regatta have always made me a little terrified of gyros. Even though I lived within walking distance of the Greek Food Festival for six years, I had never been there, and really, the only Greek food I can think of that I've ever eaten was feta cheese and mini spanikopitas at someone's wedding reception. I was a little intimidated.

Lucky for us though, each food name had a description next to it on the order sheet, so I was able to see what sounded like things I'd like and pick those. After we paid and headed upstairs with our selection, I also had to try out the things they were advertising as 'Greek fries.' I don't know how authentic those were, but I was not going to pass up a chance to eat fries under the excuse of supporting a local Pittsburgh organization.

In the end, we decided on these choices:



The bottom left corner is the spanikopita (fillo pastry filled with feta cheese and spinach), above that is souzoukakia (meatballs in tomato wine sauce), next to that is a dolmathe (herbs and rice in a marinated grape leaf), and of course, those fantastic Greek fries (which were really just fries with feta cheese on top). Oh, and that's my carton of raspberry iced tea (I'm really a Marburger farms kind of girl, but so far, the only place in town I can find that serves those besides my old high school is Wholey's). If I'm going to celebrate, I'm *really* going to celebrate ;)

I really can't say enough good things about this food. That spanikopita was fantastic, and I'm really picky about meatballs, but this one was just melt-in-your-mouth good. The grape leaves were probably my least favorite, but even they were still tasty. And the fries? It was as if they had been snatched from the Potato Patch itself. Oh man.



Thankfully, we were a few miles from home with no car, so we got to walk off some of that meal and get ourselves prepped for Food Splurge #2 of the day.

Last night, we headed up Murray Avenue to Cuzamil, which is a tiny Mexican restaurant and bar that you would probably miss if you weren't walking right past it. And that's a shame, because now that La Fiesta is gone (bless its little soccer-game-supplying soul), this is probably the best Mexican restaurant in the city. The El Campesino on McKnight Road is a close second, but if you're staying within the city limits, Cuzamil is really fantastic.

They were packed (as expected), but the Buccos game was on, and we were feeling quite patient, so we ordered a pitcher of margaritas and set to work on the chips and salsa. The pitcher took a little while to arrive, but it was well worth the wait. The blend was light and delicious, a perfect balance of mix and tequila, so it wasn't overpoweringly sweet.

I had the chicken quesadilla, and my husband had the mahi mahi milanesa (I do not really know what 'milanesa' means, but I can only guess it means something like 'lightly breaded and fried in a batter made of amazing'). All the meals come on those huge plates with refried beans, rice, and salad topped with guac and sour cream, just like La Fiesta used to make. This is quite dangerous, as this place is literally less than half a mile from our house, and I no longer have the metabolism of my early twenties when I lived two blocks down from La Fiesta.

The best news of all? Somehow, our day's worth of gluttony spurred the Buccos to beat the Cubbies. I was going to make a comparison about the underdog Buccos being like the underdog Mexicans in the Battle of Puebla, and get all metaphorical to tie things together at the end here but... really, I'm still just working off that pitcher of margaritas ;)

Also, it's only 2.5 hours until the puck drops, and I've got to get my game face on! Let's Go Pens!!

Snowpocalypse and Me: Wintertime AWESOMENESS and Hope on the Horizon

If you don't live in Pittsburgh, or if you had another reason to be shut in all weekend and thus haven't looked outside, let me be the first to inform you that we are in the middle of a massive SNOWPOCALYPSE (I am not kidding; the news stations are using this term, as well as 'Snowmageddon,' and quite liberally, I might add). You know what this means, right? I have been bouncing off the walls ever since the first coating of white hit the ground. What I didn't realize was that the snow would ultimately lead me to a great revelation. But I'll get to that ;)

On my Top Billion Favorite Things About Pittsburgh list, somewhere in between 'Fireworks' and 'Folk Festival Potato Pancakes,' there is 'Extreme Pittsburgh Weather.' I've blogged about my love for torrential downpours that result in flooding and the inability to park your car on the Mon Wharf, but now, for the first time, I am enabled to blog about my absolute favorite preciptation, snow.

To fully understand my enjoyment of this snowstorm, I should make it clear that this was my weekend off of work. Insane snowfalls during days when I have to work usually lead to plenty of whining from me, since I can't be home to enjoy the storm. But we'd known since about Monday that a storm was coming this weekend, and that meant that I had about four full days of "You know, there's going to be a BLIZZARD this weekend!" enjoyment. (I do apologize to my friends and coworkers who may be annoyed by this behavior on my part :)

I spent all Friday morning whining about the lack of snow. When was it going to start? Was this another Pittsburgh Extreme Weather Dream Gone Awry? Oh how many times in my life have I been teased by Joe Denardo and Kevin Benson, hoping for feet of snow and waking up to only a dusting? What if this was just another one of those moments? Finally, around 2:00, the flurries began, but it was just too warm for any of it to stick. I was postively heartbroken, so I laid down in bed to read for a bit, and accidentally fell asleep...

By the time I awoke an hour later, the first inch had fallen. Our road was coated, and our back porch and yard had a healthy inch of the beautiful stuff on it. However, I was not ready to get my hopes up yet, so I settled onto the couch to watch a DVR'd SNL special and periodically pull back the curtains to check on the progress.

The snow kept coming. And coming. We decided to abandon our plans of attending First Friday, and instead settled in for a night of snow-watching and gaming. Around 5:30, just before the night began to completely fall, we took little Lucy out back and I took some pictures. The snow was coating everything, but just a light blanket.

By the time I woke up the next morning to take Lucy out again for her 5:30am bathroom break, the snow was so high, she could barely step off the porch into it. When we all awoke for the day around 8am, the Snowpocalypse had fully arrived. The snow was so high that my husband had to dig a little valley for Lucy to walk through, and the snow on each side of the valley was taller than her head. Everything was covered, tree branches and power lines were sagging, and the snow was all the way up to our front and back porches.

Of course, this meant it was time for one of my favorite extreme weather events: obsessively watching WPXI. The news was fantastic - the storm was so severe that Julie Bologna had been forced to sleep at the studio, so not only was our favorite weekend weatherman, Kevin Benson, on duty, we had the Chief Meteorologist present as well! And then, oh then, the moment we had all been waiting for:

In the span of less than thirty seconds, both Julie Bologna and Kevin Benson referenced the Blizzard of '93.

If you didn't live in Pittsburgh in 1993, let me set the stage: It was nearing the Ides of March. We'd all counted winter out. Surely we'd survived, and spring was just around the corner. But oh no, what is this? An oncoming winter storm? WTAE's Joe Denardo, the most famous Pittsburgh weatherman (the man had a theme song, I kid you not), informed us that inches and inches of snow were on the way.

The Blizzard of '93 was the biggest weather adventure this city had seen in ages. The snow fell as fast as two-to-three inches per hour, and it was incredibly windy and freezing. By the end of things, we had well over two feet of snow. School was cancelled almost all week, and the neighborhood kids and I spent the entire time outside in the freezing weather having epic snowball fights and sledding down the gigantic hills behind our houses. We also watched a lot of home movies of beach vacations. For some reason, that was a really popular activity for us on snow days.

Anyway, I mention the Blizzard of '93 because it's important to our city's history, and every time there's a bit of snow involved, it's just a matter of time for the Blizzard to get mentioned. We had a terribly icy day about a month or two back, and the newscasters were all commenting on how it was the biggest shutdown of highways since the Blizzard of '93.

So today, when BOTH of our fantastic weather forecasters dropped the name of the Blizz, it was like my heart leapt a little. My husband moved to the city in 1994, so he never got to experience the magic of the Blizzard of '93 (or, coincidentally, a Buccos winning season), and I was excited for him to see a snowfall of such epic proportions. The resounding decision on WPXI was that this, the Snowpocalypse of 2010, was equal to or greater than the Blizzard of '93 in all ways except for the lack of extreme wind and low temperature.

It was this declaration that lead to my great realization. As we spent the morning running around in the snow with our little puppy, it gradually came to me. If this Snowmageddon was a match to the Blizzard of '93, it could only mean one thing: the curse has been reversed. Pittsburgh has seen a snowfall to equal the epic proportions of THE Blizzard of '93, and therefore, it naturally follows that the Buccos are about to snap out of their 17-season losing streak and go to the World Series.

No, not just go to the World Series. Our Pittsburgh Pirates are going to win the 2010 World Series.

You heard it here first: extreme weather and winning baseball seasons are on the horizon for this fantastic little city. Now if you will excuse me, I must go hop through snow piles and plan vacation days for October.

Good On You, Gallery Crawl

Last night, we attended the first Downtown Gallery Crawl of 2010. In Pittsburgh, there are two main types of Gallery Crawls: the Cultural District every-so-often ones, and the monthly Unblurred First Friday ones. The Cultural District Gallery Crawls are held just where you'd think they'd be, spanning the Downtown galleries and event spaces, and covering a lot of the same ground as the First Night happenings. First Fridays, or Unblurred, are held on the opposite end of Penn Avenue, spanning the galleries and restaurants of Garfield from end to end.

Typically, it's an easy decision of which crawl is best - First Fridays happen more regularly, and this (plus their location in Garfield) makes them a little less hectic and crowded. It's easier to get a decent glass of wine, and the galleries all serve snacks in addition to the alcohol. The Cultrual District crawls happen immediately after the workweek ends on Fridays, and if you don't get there early, all the galleries are going to be out of food and drink, and you're going to be standing around for ages trying to see any of the art.

However, we decided to hit the Cultural District Gallery Crawl to check it out, and I can say that we had an honest-to-goodness decent time. It started out slow - we were at Wood Street Galleries first, and they never seem to have anything truly interesting - but gradually improved as the night went on.

The highlights: Future Tenant's installation DO.YOU.ND3R5T@ND? Communication Through Technology. I was a little slow coming around to this when we first got into the gallery, but the more time I spent looking at the exhibit, the more I liked it. As it sounds, it was art focusing on technology that involves communication, from the soup cans on a string to IPhones and hands-free phones (probably my favorite piece - a painting of human-like birds on a telephone wire wearing headsets). It also featured a video of two dancers projected onto the wall, expressing non-verbal communication and lack of communication in relationships.

707 Penn Gallery: Particulate Behaviours. Some of this was a bit weird, mainly the two works of strips of paper on the wall that were meant to be 'activated' by pulling away the strip and allowing colored dust to fall to the ground. However, I really liked one part of the exhibit where you had to go into a little dark room that had a ceiling covered in clear globes of different sizes that reflected light. I'm all about light-art.

709 Penn Gallery: Adam Welch's A Few Objects on a Theme of Contradiction. This exhibit really fell flat for me. I'm going to just admit the truth: I didn't get it. The main piece when you entered the gallery was a dildo on a jackhammer that pounded against a piece of flat metal. Totally didn't get it. Sorry, call me a philistine, but I just don't understand. We didn't stick around too long in this gallery.

901 Penn Ave: Matthew Conboy's Pittsburgh Project. This one was probably the most interesting to me, as it was an exhibit of Pittsburgh photography, comparing work done by W. Eugene Smith from 1955-1956 with photographs taken in the past few years by Conboy. I thought the concept was fascinating, although the photographs themselves were a little lacking (this gallery and artist do get bonus points for the wine and snacks though!). One of my favorite things is comparative photography (this is a term I have made up), for example, a set of photos showing the same stretch of a city street in the early 1900s and then in present day. I really think there are so many possibilities with this type of project, and I was glad to see that other people out there have an interest in this same sort of thing that I do.

Northside Urban Pathways Gallery. This is a charter school (grades 6-12) located right in the midst of the Cultural District that always hosts a steel drum band and a bake sale. We checked out the bake sale, but happened to be stopping by between steel drum performances, so we just wandered around to look at the kids' projects that were on display. My favorite was the HIV/AIDS awareness project on display. I believe the boy who did it was named David, and I just thought he did a really great job explaining on a high school reading level the importance of getting tested, being safe, and spreading the word. I swore I wasn't going to ever get political in this blog, but I really appreciated his pamphlet on how teens and young adults should approach abstinence and safe sex, and also how these two things can be very much related. It didn't get religious or political, just very down-to-earth and common-sense. We need more of this kind of awareness in high schools, particularly our city schools. Good job. :)

Material Witness Showroom. This could be the totally wrong name of the place, but it's all I can find. We stopped in this gallery on First Night, but a bit of the art had changed, so we came back for a second round. The gallery is half-furniture (awesome, wooden furniture and fireplace-free active-fires) and half-art (this time paintings by Rachel Hallas, which were beautiful). It was a really nice atmosphere to hang out and relax for a little while, and enjoy some cheese, grapes, and delicious mini muffins. Yet again, you get a bonus point for feeding us while we enjoyed your art!

PA Culinary Institute. Just had to mention them again, since I stopped in for another brownie. They were just regular fudge brownies this time, and not the peanut butter and cashew ones of First Night, but man oh man were they good. Yum!

All in all, it was quite a good time, and I'm thoroughly proud of the Cultural District for keeping up with First Fridays. There isn't much that'll prevent me from going to any free Pittsburgh event, but it's nice to get the most out of my visit as I can.

The night was also noteworthy because my student ID that has given me free reign to PAT busses since 2001 expired on December 31st (your guess is as good as mine how it was in-date a full 2.5 years after I graduated), and this gallery crawl was the first time I've ever had to pay cash for a bus. Did you know that it costs $2.00 to take the bus?? And apparently, if we'd had to transfer, it would have cost even more! I'm mildly outraged by this. At Pitt, we paid something like $55 a semester for 'transportation fees' which included unlimited use of the PAT system, the inclines, the T, our Pitt busses, and VanCall. There must be a way around this... Anyone want me to TA their class for a free Pitt ID? I can do science or English, I promise!

Things to work on... :)

First Night

Apologies again for the hiatus. This time, my excuse is our lovely little pooch Lucy. We just adopted her, and she's a very cuddle-starved baby mutt who is taking up all of my time. I may not be a kid person, but owning a puppy has certainly solidified the fact that I'm a dog person. She's my little sweet angel doggy. I will surely post some pictures of her at some point, but first, I wanted to do my long-overdue post about First Night (apparently now with a sweet little red dog on my lap).

For the second year in a row, my husband and I decided to attend Pittsburgh's First Night with another one of our couple-friends on New Year's Eve. For those of you who are unfamiliar, First Night is an all-ages event held downtown on New Year's Eve, culminating with our version of the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball Drop. Because we're Yinzers and thus have to do everything our own way, our ball goes up, instead of dropping.

The city shuts down most of Penn Avenue downtown and puts up fire barrels on the street corners to keep you warm as you wander around and look at the events. This year was relatively warm (in the 30s), but a light snow/rain was falling the whole time, making it seem somehow colder than last year's below-zero windchill. The majority of the events are inside, but you do spend a good deal of the evening outside traveling between exhibits.

At last year's event, we'd been back in Pittsburgh for just over two months, and the excitement that I felt wandering around First Night was just electric: I was finally back with my people, back on the correct coast and in the proper time zone. Every time I heard a Yinzer accent or saw Steeler hats and jackets my heart jumped a little. Even the sound of the sax guy who can't play "Here We Go Steelers" in tune brought a tear to my eye. I was home.

So this year, being fully re-citizened to the 'Burgh, and now even being a homeowner within the city limits, I wasn't expecting the same kind of feeling. I was looking forward to the night, but I wasn't planning on feeling extra alive or hopeful or anything like that.

So thanks, my city and my neighbors, for continuing to surprise me :)

We started the night off with dinner at the Sonoma Grille. Neither of us had been before, and being the Central Coast wine country fanatics that we are, we were really excited to check it out. It was absolutely worth the price. I swear to you, the meal was an entire experience. If you go, I highly recommend getting the tapas platter, just so you can check out a variety of delicious flavors in small portions. And the wine? We picked a Paso Robles bottle that was so delicious we're planning on visiting the winery when we're in the area next month on vacation.

With that excellent start to the night, it was off to take in as much as we could of what the city had to offer. Probably my only complaint about First Night is that there is just SO much to see that unless you are very quick and working on a pre-determined schedule, it's basically impossible to see everything you want to see. I'll just touch on a few of the things we loved.

The Pillow Project's Present. Perfect. Tense. The Pillow Project is a dance company headed by Pearlann Porter, who is one of the most incredible choreographers of the present moment. I'm a little biased, maybe, because I used to take her class at Point Park, but her style is so innovative and the way her pieces have been experimenting with light recently is just fascinating to me (we also took in her piece in December at Dance Alloy, The Itch of the Key, which was incredible). This performance featured a male and female dancer behind the glass window of an otherwise-empty shop, dancing and interacting around two squares of light. It was set to Radiohead and Adele songs, and just very creative and enjoyable.

The Pennsylvania Culinary Institute. We made a point of stopping here after a tasty snack last year, and we were not disappointed at all. They had several different soups to choose from, hot chocolate and apple cider, and my personal favorite, brownies. This year's brownies had peanut butter icing with cashews. Sweet and salty and delicious, and only $1.50. I love that place.

WYEP Studios - Good Night, States. As I'm highly allergic to hipsters (those eight months we lived on the border of Lawrenceville were very tough on me), I'd been kind of avoiding ever seeing the Good Night, States, despite the good press they get locally. I guess I just assumed they were 'one of those hipster bands' whose crowd at a show makes me want to avoid the bar at all costs. However, the couple we were with wanted to check them out, so I decided to give them a chance. I was honestly pleasantly surprised. They've got a great sound, which is very catchy and not bored or whiny. Lots of instruments, but all of them have a unique sound and contribute to the songs. They reminded me a lot of one of my favorite little acts, Norfolk and Western. I could tell that these were actually talented musicians, and I think we will definitely check them out again around town.

Fireworks. I seriously wanted to do an all-fireworks blog. The way we Yinzers love our fireworks is something almost fanatical. The fireworks were set off between Fifth Avenue Place and the old Hornes building, and it was a little scary in those tight quarters, but still cool.

Overall, we had a great time. We didn't get to check out as much stuff as we would have liked to just because of time constraints, but the things we saw were really neat. I know it's a year away, but I really recommend everyone checking out First Night 2011 at the end of December.

And now, it's off to tend to the little red dog and get some sleep before my weekend of work begins. Here are a few parting pictures from First Night:

a resolution sculpture titled "Welcome Love" by Kyle Fischer, woven with ribbons of people's New Year's resolutions

Penn Avenue is closed down to traffic so First Night attendees can walk up and down the street

fireworks above the old Hornes building at the start of the new year